[Theforum] Re: root access

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Thu Apr 25 12:52:21 CDT 2002


> From: "Warden, Matt" <mwarden at mattwarden.com>
[...]
> should the people on the steering committee be the only body with God
> status on weo? I mean, the editing group can edit all they want, but
> those with God status can just delete the thing.

no, that would be silly... and i don't necessarily think everyone on
the steering committee should be given root, either... that would be
silly, too, IMO...

> should the people on the steering committee be the only body which can
> sign checks and receive money? Any group can decide whatever they
> want, but if they don't get the money to do it, they ain't gonna do
> it.

in that case, yes, i tend to believe that the steering committee
should be the only body capable of handling finances... i'd rather
not see a subgroup blow all our donation money on hookers and
smack (i haven't done that in years)... i'd rather see one group,
made up of all sub-groups, handle it as a whole, otherwise it's too
easy to lose track of...

FWIW, this is generally (much simplified) how many NFPs work...
partly to save admin costs, and partly for accounting/acountability...

> .. similar points can come from each group.

yes, but they should be on a case-by-case basis... maybe...

> If all the power is in the steering committee, what are the other
> groups for?

creating and sitting on the steering committee... it'd be pointless to
have 18 groups that never talk with each other in some formalized
fashion... and by formalized, i mean agreed-upon by all the
groups...

> I think the key is cooperation. If you want to put some kind of
> accountability/ass-kicking structure in place, that's fine. But, I
> think the strength of this design is the distribution of
> responsibility.

agreed, but that responsibility is no good if some groups feel out in
the cold by others, or isolated in any way... accountability is
another obvious factor, too...

> I just think that if you put *all* the "power" in the steering
> committee, you have just one group... no matter how it looks on paper.

if each group decides on a course of action and their rep presents
that agreed-upon action to the steering group, then that won't
happen... each group will simply be working through a proxy...



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